The health enterprise in India has come a long manner, from the times of the neighborhood “Akhadas” to gyms and different varieties of workout routines which includes Zumba, Aerobics and many others. In India, attention on health and wellbeing has been developing swiftly. People’s hobby in keeping their health isn't always just because of a “stay suit aspect” but also to remain un-stricken by illnesses and different issues like weight problems and diabetes. Today, the health enterprise accounts to over $24 Bn industry.
However, there are positive loopholes with regards to addressing the consumer worries and imparting a easy carrier. The industry is not that a good deal prepared and simplest a handful of players are taking benefit of it. The quarter is fragmented and there's a want to in shape it nicely. Fitness specialists and enthusiasts, Arjun Singh and Sameer Mehra understood the restrictions and issues on this area and consequently came up with the concept of Plank.
Founded in September, 2015, Plank offers customers limitless get entry to to a curated community of fitness centres. Currently, primarily based out of Gurgaon, Plank objectives to make fitness bendy and adaptable to a client’s time and wishes. Arjun said, “We realized that most of the people hesitate to make a commitment to health because both they suppose it’s too tough to get into, or inconvenient due to distances, they might need to journey to do their workouts. Hence, Plank, with a ramification of super workout routines and a desire to strive some thing new at your personal comfort looked pretty appealing to us.”
How It Works
Once a client registers as a Plank consumer, s/he gains unrestricted get entry to to the whole Plank community. There are masses of alternatives for users to discover and they are able to use any of the gives as normally as they need. The startup shall we customers ebook lessons on the go.
Also Read:- MARKETING IS A MUST FOR THE BUSINESSES THESE DAYS
Arjun mentions, “Today, there may be a combination of alternatives our usual clients search for. Largely they’re divided into people who want to do instructor led training like Spin, Zumba and/or Yoga after which there are folks that look for more traditional alternatives which includes going to the gymnasium to raise weights.” Keeping their requirements in mind, Plank gives a spread of lessons, together with CrossFit and Mixed Martial Arts lessons, close to to customers vicinity.
Flexibility is an area of consideration on the subject of listing out the classes. Customers can go to as many gyms and studios as they need or the identical ones as frequently as they want. Plank is also selective, with regards to selecting the gyms and the studios even as adding to it its network. Each place is going through a screening process and are checked for safety, hygiene and nice of teachers. “We need our person revel in to be steady”, explains Arjun.
A Plank person can get right of entry to to distinct content after registration.Plank additionally carries out instructions and bootcamps with its community of running shoes for its users throughout weekends.
Target Audience
Currently, Plank is concentrated on folks who are seeking to comprise health and fitness into their daily workouts. This means that any character who's inclined to get in shape can be considered as a audience for the startup.
Business Model, Monetization and Traction
The startup works on a subscription based version. A one month subscription is to be had for $37 (INR 2.4K), and it gives the user unlimited get admission to to the entire community.
The startup has also raised its initial round of funding from Aman Kumar, a serial entrepreneur and investor which changed into accompanied by way of a seed round led by AdvantEdge Partners, a New Delhi-based totally undertaking fund.
Since its inception in September, 2015, the startup has managed to acquire a purchaser base of 500. “We didn’t have a advertising and marketing budget. Everything has been via phrase of mouth. This offers us hope.”
Challenges & Competition
The largest venture, as per Arjun is to alternate human beings’s mind-set about health. People find it difficult to ingrain the concept of a workout habitual into their every day lives. This is why Plank gives range and versatility with regards to their lessons. However, part of the mission lies in instructing the customer on what are the one of a kind alternatives and the way they could build a custom designed workout regime which isn't always easy to discern out.
With increasingly humans getting fitness conscious, numerous startups have forayed into the fitness quarter with little twists of their commercial enterprise models. Recently, GHV backed FitMeIn, which is an online platform that gives month-to-month multi-studio club to top class fitness workout locations in Delhi/NCR. Other startups in this precise domain consist of Dumbelled.Com, Your Fitness Planner, Jeevom, Sports Coach India and Flexipass. These are only a few names who're focused on the identical marketplace as Plank.
Also Read:- CLOUD COMPUTING: HISTORY AND THE FUTURE
However, in keeping with Arjun, what units Plank apart is not like other businesses in which the visits to a health club or class are limited to a selected no. Of instances, there may be no such restriction for the Plank users. “Flexibility is one metric which the startup is based upon heavily,” he stated.
Future Plans
Apart from fitness and well-being, the 12 member group needs enter the sports activities industry within the future. According to Arjun, the aim of Plank will usually be to companion with the great available gyms and studios and build the high-quality all-round revel in for its customers. Plank is presently, available on Android and iOS.
Editor’s Note
Plank’s flexibility in phrases of scheduling and area offers its users an possibility to revel in a holistic health regime as per the person comfort. However, lots of gamers have entered the market lately and the venture now lies is in differentiating the product from the rest of the gang. Both from a patron and a companion-centre’s perspective, it's far essential for Plank to keep best in order that the revel in of a consumer doesn’t get hampered. The startup also desires to maintain a eager watch on a way to efficaciously optimize natural boom as it is nonetheless ordinarily depending on phrase of mouth advertising. It is now remains to be seen how properly Plank encounters its demanding situations and builds a enterprise from ‘fit to profit’.
